What will the television of the future be like?
What will the television of the future be like?
The 20th international CSTB.Telecom&Media’2018 exhibition and forum finished its work in Moscow.
Three days of hard work for the television and communications sphere – a few dozens of presentations and expressive statements of international and Russian majors, hundreds of meetings with partners and competitors, eventful business program – this will be most memorable for the participants and guests of the 20th anniversary CSTB. Telecom & Media 2018 exhibition and forum which finished its work on February 1. More than 270 brands among which are international and Russian content producers and distributors, the leading operators of multichannel digital TV and communication, cable and satellite companies, media-holdings and TV channels, foreign and Russian content providers, producers and suppliers of equipment and services, and more than 25,000 visitors – professionals of the TV and telecom industry.
CSTB. Telecom & Media started its 20th anniversary with an official opening where director general of Midexpo Irina Nedumova, president of the Russian CATV Association Yuriy Pripachkin, Director General of Tricolor TV Aleksey Kholodov, vice-president of Huawei Russia Zheng Xin, general producer of Channel 1. Global network Dmitry Borisov and Deputy Director General of VGTRK (All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company) Dmitry Mednikov took part in the ceremony. German Klimenko, an Internet development advisor to the President of the Russian Federation forwarded a letter of congratulation to the event. The speakers agreed that the CSTB. Telecom & Media 2018 exhibition and forum has been the major annual event of the sphere for 20 years.
CSTB. Telecom & Media has proven one more time that it is not just an exhibition; it is an all-purpose platform for business communication of the telecom community. A significant part of the project is a multi-streaming international forum which this year included a great variety of subject-based events – 20 sections, discussions and seminars.
Business development strategies of terrestrial and non-terrestrial channels in various propagation mediums started its work with a round table where the industry leaders discussed fundamental changes in the sphere of content distribution and exchanged their opinions on how the user flow is changing while watching linear and non-linear TV. Among the speakers there were Yana Churikova, VIACOM, Yuriy Pripachkin, the Russian CATV Association, Alexey Volin, the Ministry for Communications and Media of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Silin, the Russian CATV Association, Dmitry Mednikov, VGTRK, Valentina Udalova, Channel 1, Kirill Lysko, Digital TV, Mikhail Kovalchuk, Signal Media, Zheng Xin, Huawei Russia, Aleksey Kholodov, Tricolor TV, Natalya Bratchikova, MTS, Romanchuk Viktor, Rostelecom, Mikhail Demin, NTV-PLUS, Kirill Makhnovky, Orion Express, Nikolay Orlov, Eutelsat S.A., Zharkyn Tursynov, LifeStream, Ksenia Achkasova, MediaScope, Alexandr Liger, NSK.
Among the important topics for discussion was the problem of pirated content and methods to fight against it. The main unauthorized resources for spreading video content have already been blocked. Besides, the Ministry for Communications and Media has blocked more than 500 “mirror sites” of the unauthorized platforms. The speakers agreed that for the average user content is primary and not the method of consumption and the market members should work on creating the content value in the consumer eyes. Besides, the experts noted that non-linear viewing is gaining momentum, while a subscriber at any convenient time is viewing items designed for linear watching. A lot has been said about the OTT services, for example that the OTT development depends on how TV channels are going to establish their platforms for legal content distribution. Accordingly, traditional terrestrial broadcasting will not be closed, it is better to mention segmentation. The participants discussed telecom-operators and content-makers relations which in many ways still exist in the grey area: telecom-operators work in non-competitive environment which lacks the industrial statistics – there is no data concerning TV viewing and subscribers’ payment distribution.
Legal distribution and monetization of channels in the Internet environment was a keynote of a presentation where NSK, Channel 1, SPB TV, MTS and Vitrina TV companies together with Aleksey Volin, the Deputy Minister, the Ministry for Communications and Media discussed which drivers and barriers exist for broadcasting TV channels on the Internet. Currently there is no single platform solution , however, technologies have made a great step forward so that that allows the key market players to legalize their presence in OTT to the greatest possible extend. The experts agreed that broadcasting in OTT is associated with technological difficulties, TV channels should cooperate with platforms which provide modern solutions, for example, broadcasting target advertisement to a certain viewer depending on the facility.
For the first time at CSTB. Telecom&Media 2018 a Strategic Session for Russian Producers’ Associations took place, within which the representatives of Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, VGTRK, Association of developers and producers of TV and Radiobroadcasting Facilities (ARPAT), Association of Members of the Internet of things market (AIV), Association of Augmented and Virtual Reality (AVRA), Committee for regulating the internal market of the Association of dDevelopers and Producers of Electronics (ARPE), Association of trade companies and goods producer of electronic household appliances and computer hardware (RATEK), National Association for producers and integrators of TV and radio equipment and software (ATRP), GS Group, RBC and TPV CIS thoroughly discussed impetuses for domestic production development. The most important of them are fiscal expansion, state purchases, customs and tariff regulation, state subsidizing and standardization. During the discussion the participants came to the conclusion that all the standards should be harmonized with the international practice, otherwise the domestic production will not be able to compete with the foreign one.
Another discussion concerning ULTRA HD – a new global stage in TV development? has gathered the representatives of TMT Consulting, Tricolor TV, Dolby in Russia and the CIS, GS Group, Eutelsat S.A, Lifestream (Smotreshka), Irdeto, 1 TVCH, Huawei. The experts discussed changes in the Russian and International UHD markets in 2017, prospects for development of a subscriber base for UHD Television in Russia, the growth drivers and problems of technology development. Each third TV set sold in the world has the Ultra HD format option. Of course, in Russia this figure is still a bit lower – around 16% appliances sold but this percent is growing because the cost of items is decreasing. Currently there are neither technical nor commercial problems for 4K development in Russia. The only question is a matter of content provision as there is almost no domestic content in the market. But there is a prospect – the 1 TVCH Company will start to film its own content in Ultra HD in the near future.
The forum of regional operators the co-organizer of which was the Association of Teleset gathered representatives of the operators from all over Russia these included Ufanet, Ordercom, Vidicon, Lanta, KETIS, Oreol, Sevencom, as well as Kontur-M and 1 TVCH. Of particular interest were discussions relating to the Yarovaya law and possible ways of its implementation on the context of data storage by the operators. The forum participants agreed that the law passed in 2016 does not meet the operators’ expectations and interferes with their activity but they had different opinions concerning the latest governmental regulation on changing the term of data storage to 1 month. Besides, the issues of optimizing the content filling the channels, the necessity to determine the same parameters for assessing channel viewing and mobile apps development for satellite-based operators as well as mobile TV promotion for the tablets generation were touched upon.
Another new item of the exhibition was the CONTENT SUMMIT RUSSIA. Russian content: trends and prospects conference organized by the Midexpo Company supported by Reed MIDEM in cooperation with Expocontent. In the course of discussion leading producers, distributors, sellers and buyers of content discussed marketing researches of the national content market in the Russian Federation, prospects of its approach to the international market and domestic channels development abroad as well as new technologies and future trends of the media branch (360° and VR). Additionally, the experts discussing the problems of Russian channels and TV distributors approach to the foreign TV markets, detected stagnation and even the decrease of the audience of the Russian TV channels abroad. Among the participants of the event there were Aleksandr Tsekalo, the Sreda film company, Vlad Ryashin, Star Media, Vasiliy Soloviev, Russian TV and film producer, Aleksey Trotsyuk, Yellow Black and White, Gevond Andreasyan, Bolshoe Kino, Aleksandra Modestova, Expocontent, Vera Obolonkina, Channel 1. Global network, Nina Romodanovskaya, Proficinema, Yana Belskaya, Kabelshchik, Evgeniy Borisov, Vortex.Pictures, Kirill Tanaev, Mordern MediaResearch Institute, Julia Yuzbasheva, ValidataKIDS, Ekaterina Filatova, AVRA and many others.
Event marketing as an effective method of promoting TV channels and operators was discussed at the Marketing activity of operators and broadcasters case marathon. This session gathered the representatives of broadcasters and operators from all over Russia who in the form of 10 minute long dynamic presentations were sharing their experience in carrying out different events for attracting attention and increasing the loyalty of the target audience. The co-organizer and moderator of the session was Yana Belskaya, the Chief Editor of the Kabelshchik internet portal. Large and creative marketing cases by the TV channel operators were presented; they are focused on viewers and subscribers and implemented both in Moscow involving big operators and in regions and other countries. Among of them there are regional operators experience – Teleplus from the city of Dubna, Telemir from Lipetsk (Russian movie week), RIKT from Mezhdurechensk, Ufanet from Ufa and Ketis from Vladimir; A big adventure game on Game of Thrones by Dom.ru. The cases by broadcasters were attracted a lively interest: Living Dead by the Fox TV channel, the first TV award for illusionists by the Trick TV channel, a fishing festival by 1 TVCH, parents online seminars by Lagardere, the Smotreshka federal campaign, a draw game of operators for the Cannes Film Festival by PKVS, a launch of the Medici series by Viacom, interaction with bloggers and the viral video by the Discovery TV channel.
The OTT.Future section had great success among visitors which united the service representatives and operators. The Director General of the Association of Internet-video, Aleksey Byrdin noted the efficiency of the “mirror sites” law passed last year the purpose of which is an anti-piracy campaign. According to the statistics due to the law the number of unauthorized websites users has been reduced to 37 million people. In these circumstances the number of legal resources users has been increased to 2 million people. Besides, in 2017 the laws on cash-registering machines, anonymizers and online movie theaters came into force. Within the section the participants discussed summarized concerning the worldwide VOD/OTT market the analysis of which showed an increase of the SVOD share to 50%, a decrease of the AVOD share and a transnational expansion and an appearance of a new professional video market leader – social media. The representatives of independent OTT services were positive about the prospects of the OTT integration and services. To increase the work quality of platforms they proposed a formula based on “three pillars”: marketing, content and engineering changes. According to the experts, the main trends of the next year will be a digital TV transformation, smart content production, digital platforms governance as well as merger and acquisition processes. Among the participants of the section there were TMT Consulting, J’son & Partners Consulting, TelecomDaily, RAEK, IKS-Consulting, ivi, Megogo, OKKO, PeersTV, Megalabs, Orion Express, Tricolor TV, Rostelecom, MGTS and others.
The annual Multiservice satellite networks and VSAT. Promising satellite technologies of communication and broadcasting on the Russian market (the co-organizer is the Tele-sputnik magazine) drew attention to the potential of using satellite communication in unusual environments for Russia and shared innovative projects in this field. During the section the reporters were the representatives of Tricolor TV, the Orion Group of companies, MTS Satellite TV, STV, Lifestream, Eutelsat Networks, the Agat Federal State Unitary Enterprise, TMT Consulting, the AltegroSky State concern, State Duma of the Russian Federation, Northern Sky Research, J’son & Partners Consulting, Hughes Network Systems, Reys Telecom CJSC, the NEBO State concern, Russian Satellite Communications Company, NIIAS, Iridium Communications, the Morsviazsputnik Federal State Unitary Enterprise, the Severnaya Korona Information Space Center, D.K.Orbital.
They also discussed new projects aimed at creating the digital lifestyle for platforms which provide subscribers with a multi-functional service. For example, a Tricolor TV project which offers broadcasting of TV channel packages to user devices in public places, or a new hybrid interactive TV-tuner from the Orion State concern which involves satellite and IP-broadcasting technologies and supports the majority of the popular standards of playing media content. The modern technologies has led the market to the state when it is not an operator who decides what a subscriber will watch but a consumer himself chooses content he is interested him as well as interactive TV watching options.
A special attention was paid to satellite Internet and K-band development. According to the majority of people, the satellite Internet is not a competitor with operators but in many ways it becomes a solution for covering “white spots” which are present even in Moscow Region. As for the prospect of the satellite communication development for movable objects (automobiles, trains, planes) successful cases of implementing this idea now exist and have been presented during the section although the technology needs subsidiaries and development.
The HIGH-TECH DATACASTING: innovative technologies in TV production and broadcasting, section the content partner of which was the Telesputnik publishing house, was divided into two sessions. A strong interest was gained by the discussion in which the representatives of the RT TV Channel and Channel 1 took part. The experts noted the importance of implementing innovative technologies in TV channels production. In particular, they mentioned the experience of content production in the VR and Video 360° formats. Despite the first achievements such content may become widespread in the near future but only with an introduction of more convenient and accessible user devices for watching it. The second part of the section involved two reports made by technological solutions developers for the broadcasting sector needs; they spoke about innovative solutions and technologies in TV production and broadcasting. In the section the representatives of the Zvezda Media Group, the Red Media Creative Production Enterprise, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise of the Ostankino TV Technical Center, VIDAU Systems, Broadview Russia LLC, EVS Broadcast Equipment, NSK, The Representative Office of Harmonic Delaware LLK LLC, JoyMech LLC, the Centre of Technical Educational Support of the Russian State University for the Humanities Virtual Studios and HP Inc.
During the Craft of Creating and Developing a Thematic Channel the theory part was combined with study of the real examples from the TV practice. The section moderators were Yana Belskaya, Kabelshchik, and Regina Yurkina, MediaBrand. The event involving the experts in advertising, producing and digital-marketing consisted of five thematic blocks devoted to news production, TV promo and design, Internet promotion and reality show designing. During the section they discussed terrestrial promo trends, gave advice on creating an effective promo, focused on the attributes for success of viral advertising and talked of how to make a top-rated reality show. The section finished with a detailed analysis of various programs that had become the nominees of the 9th national Bolshaya Tsifra Award. Presentations and reports were made by Regina Yurkina, MediaBrand, Anastasiia Batsueva, the Super TV channel, Maria Vinarskaya, independent producer, Iliya Zolotarevskiy, independent expert, Alexandr Zheleznyakov, Panasonic.
The next exhibition and forum which is going to be the 21st, will take place next year from January 29 to January 31, 2019 in Crocus Expo. Follow the news on www.cstb.ru